Today turned into a day of nothing but sanding. I know, what a shocker, it’s a composite airplane. There is so much rubbing required a Jeannie should pop out with three wishes. Alas, today way not my day for granted wishes.
I started with sanding down the landing brake since the primer was dry. Let me tell you, one day old UV Smooth Prime sands like a dream. I used 120 and after 15 minutes the surface is getting really nice.
You can see in this photo that I am still a bit out of contour in a few areas. By out of contour I mean on the order of .010 inch or less. Basically the depth of the eggshell texture in the photo. I’ll hit it with more UVSP and sand once more and that should do it.
After that was done I switched to sanding the cowl epoxy wipe. This is a big job and took the better part of the day.
Gratuitous selfie and terrible tye dye fashion aside, there was a lot of epoxy to sand. Epoxy does not sand so nicely as the UVSP. The good thing about it being tough to sand is that it really gives you time to sneak up on the proper contours.
I did weigh the cowl before and after epoxy wipe. Before epoxy wipe, the cowl was 9.2 lbs. After epoxy wipe, it was 10.4 lbs, and so far I have sanded it down to 10.2. Epoxy is heavy! I am going to do more sanding to see if we can get more weight out. In some small areas we are already down to bare micro patches, so the extra sanding will have to be on select areas.
My new roommate, Wes, made his way out to the Garaggio today too. He got the “contouring is shaping,” and 45 degree sanding pattern dual instruction. He then went guns a blazing at the cowl with me. I’m quite impressed with his patience and attention to detail. He was a big help. Thanks!
the Garaggio 